Code Lyoko: Twelve Days of Xmas
by Aeron Solo
Summary: Christmas gone wacky! The worst holiday ever! X stands for XANA! Geez, I hope your holiday was better than this one!
1. Foreword

_**Foreword**_

_What is real? What is not? You may think you know the answer to this question, but the truth is, do you really? I haven't found anyone yet who truly knows the answer to this question, and I'm not quite sure that I know the answer fully myself, either._

_Hello. My name is Aeron Solo. I live in the Hoenn region of the Pokémon League. You may be observing the tale being told by my friends labeled __Rise of the Forbidden_._ If so, you would also know that I perished in my effort to destroy Cipher once and for all. The question is, did I truly succeed? I think not. Trying to destroy Cipher is like trying to drive cockroaches to extinction-nearly impossible. If I really did die though, how am I writing to you now? Did I actually survive, or is this a prank letter? The truth is, I did die. But I have rejoined the living. How did it happen, though?_

_This tale that I bring to you is one that tells not of an adventure in the world of Pokémon, but of a world hidden among your world. A world within a world, so to speak. In a certain Kadic Academy, five teenagers reside that fought against a powerful entity called XANA, a program that malfunctioned in development and wanted to destroy our world, for unknown reasons. Through a virtual world called Lyoko, they managed to counter his every attack. In the end, they managed to create a program that terminated all of XANA's plans, but with a terrible price. Franz Hopper left the world, and Aelita Franz Schaeffer was left as an orphan. The gang managed to seal their wounds and start a normal life, which lasted for about half a year._

_The question was, however, was XANA truly gone? Our heroes, the Lyoko Warriors, so to speak, thought so. Yet, you and I both know that well laid schemes often go wrong. This is no exception._

_Now, why am I talking about this? The truth is, I myself became a Lyoko Warrior. I was able to become part of the team that resisted XANA's attempts to destroy planet Earth. Even as my friends are telling Aerín of their tragic story, the Lyoko Warriors and I were working to bring down XANA for the last time. There is one thing that you must know, however: Axel and I once were not twins, but triplets. Fraternal triplets._

_There are many stories contained with this message. I warn you, however, the information within is highly confidential, and you must swear never to tell of this to your parents, or anyone you can't trust to shut their mouths. We have been able to keep doing this because of our secrecy, and we hope to be able to continue if XANA returns for a third time. Thank you for understanding._

_With best wishes to you all,_

_Aeron Solo_


	2. On the 1st day of Xmas

_On the 1__st__ day of X-mas, my worst foe gave to me,_

_A partridge (x 1000) in a pear tree…_

_

* * *

_

**Kadic Academy, Christmas Eve:**

Aelita was sleeping peacfully in her room. Her computer hummed softly in standby mode, ready to activate to let her know about an attack by XANA.

Unbeknownst to her, the lock to her door was being picked. The intruder finally got it open, and slipped inside.

The shadowy figure moved swiftly to the table and placed a parcel upon it, as well as a note. He paused, glancing at Aelita, who stirred slightly but continued to sleep.

_Oh, just my imagination,_ he thought, moving out the door, locking it and closing it.

Aeron Solo moved on, having five more parcels to drop off.

**_

* * *

_**

**Kadic Academy, Christmas morning:**

Aelita woke up in her dorm room. She looked outside, and saw that snow was lightly falling. There was plenty of it, though.

She yawned and got up. Then she noticed a small parcel on her desk, with red wrapping paper and a light pink ribbon. The parcel sat on a small envelope.

"What's this?" she wondered, opening the envelope.

"Dear Aelita," she read.

_Contained within this box is something that you might find useful. I asked Jeremy about what you liked, and he said that you were into music and technology. So, I put into your present a few functions that I hadn't originally intended to put in but worked out anyway to make this worthwhile. Jeremy deserves a bit of the credit; he laid out some of the stuff for me so I would know what to put in. This is our present to you. Hope you like it._

_Merry Christmas!_

_Aeron Solo wuz here._

Aelita cautiously opened up the parcel, and found inside...

"A watch?" Aelita was a bit confused.

She picked it up and looked at it. She didn't really see anything unusual about it.

"Something's wrong here..." she muttered, putting it on.

Instantly, a hologram broadcasted out of the face. "Whoa!"

The hologram formed into a screen. On it was a square, giving Aelita the impression that she should put her hand in it. She did.

The screen lit up with the words "Aelita Schaeffer". it then turned into another data screen that said,

_The device you are wearing now is called an APW, and All-Purpose Wristband. It's a highly advanced piece of technology that has a lot of programs in it. At any time, you can call up this instructions manual by pressing the "help" button, or you could give it verbal commands. Aeron Solo put down in a separate list certain programs he thought that you would like or need._

Aelita saw a part of the screen that said, "Complete list of functions". Another said, "Recommended list of functions". A third said, "Favorite Functions".

Aelita began scrolling through and found the APW to her liking. "This is going to take some getting used to, but it's pretty good," she remarked, calling back the screen, having mastered the APW enough to be able to use basic functions with ease.

Aelita heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Aelita." Aelita heard Jeremy say.

"Oh! Hi Jeremy!" Aelita said cheerfully, quickly changing and then unlocking the door. "Come in!"

Jeremy came in. Aelita noted that he was wearing an APW, although it was blue and silver rather than pink and dark red. "So you got one too?"

"Huh?" Jeremy was a bit confused.

Aelita chuckled. "Earth to Jeremy, come in, Jeremy," she joked, waving her APW in front of his face.

"Oh! Yeah, I did!" Jeremy held his up. "So Aeron paid a visit to your room last night?"

"I guess, but I didn't see him." Aelita said.

Aelita and Jeremy went outside and began walking through the courtyard, talking. Aelita noticed something odd. "Jeremy?"

Jeremy turned towards her. "Yes, Aelita?"

"Doesn't it seem like there are an unusually large amount of birds in the pear tree?"

Jeremy turned. The only pear tree around was stocked with literally a thousand partridges.

"Hmm. That is a lot of birds. What's up with that?" Jeremy wondered.

Briefly, the eye of XANA flared in their eyes, but the two were too far away to notice.

* * *

**Kadic Academy, Odd and Ulrich's room:**

Ulrich got up and yawned. Then it hit him. "Hey, wake up Odd! It's Christmas!"

"Mmm, more sleep, thank you..." Odd muttered, curling into his bead.

Ulrich sighed with exasperation. Then he noticed a long package wrapped in yellow wrapping paper and tied with a dull green ribbon.

"What's this?" he wondered, picking it up. He read a note:

_Hey Ulrich,_

_If you're reading this, then I guess you picked up your gift. Open it up and see what's inside, eh? And be careful with it, the blasts it generates are kind of, well, "shocking", for want of a better word._

_Merry Christmas!_

_Aeron Solo wuz here._

Ulrich opened up the package and found himself looking at a katana with a decorative bronze guard sheathed in a golden scabbard. The hilt was wrapped with a slightly reflective yellow cloth in the form of a tsuba. "Wow," he said, drawing it.

He looked at the blade's reflective iridiscient gold surface. "Aeron's outdone himself," he remarked, twirling it around. He laughed when he realized that it fit him perfectly, and it responded to his every command. Wherever he wanted it to go, he was able to move it precisely in the way he wanted it to. "That's one good sword."

He wondered what Aeron meant by a shocking blast. Ulrich was pointing the point of the blade at Odd as he was thinking this.

Suddenly, the blade flared into electric brilliance. "Wha-?!"

The electricity focused itself and then channeled out of the point, hitting Odd and engulfing him in a huge web of electricity.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Odd hollered, shocked with enough voltage to throw him out of the bed.

Ulrich stared meekly. "Whoops," he said sheepishly.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR??!!! THAT HURT A LOT!!!!" Odd spased, and then flipped out for another fifteen minutes straight, making all sorts of rude remarks.

Ulrich was usually a very patient person, but even he had his limits. Annoyed, he raised his sword, causing Odd to flinch.

"It was an accident, Odd, but even so you deserved it." Ulrich looked at Odd's bed and noticed a package with purple wrapping paper and a yellow ribbon. "By the way, you have a present."

"Huh?" Odd picked it up. " "Hello, Odd," "

_This is a special device that I made for you to have fun with while protecting regular people. Be careful; this bad boy can get a bit out of hand._

_Aeron Solo wuz here._

Odd opened the package and pulled out a laser gun. "Sweet!" Odd shouted.

He set the laser to low power and fired at Ulrich, who deflected it without thinking, causing it to ricochet off of a mirror and into the center of his throwing star target, crisping it a little.

"Wow, that's a nice weapon." Ulrich said. He then noticed a note on his desk

_Your weapons will respond perfectly to your commands. You can summon them to your hands from anywhere by merely commanding them to form in your hand. This is thought activated. Use them wisely; no terrorist actions, please._

"Right." Ulrich said. "I wonder what William got..."

* * *

**Kadic Academy, William Dunbar's room:**

William Dunbar woke up in his room. The snow was still falling at this time, and he gazed at it for a bit. Then he vaulted out of bed and got dressed, then paused when he noticed a box wrapped with white wrapping paper and tied with a dark green ribbonon his desk.

He picked it up. "What's this?" he wondered.

_Dear William,_

_I guess you found your gift. Contained within are some things that could cause trouble for people trying to kill you. These things can summon your Lyoko powers at will. All you have to do is shout 'energize' and you can summon your Lyoko powers and bring to bear._

_Hope you can use this!_

_Aeron Solo wuz here._

William opened the box and pulled out a pair of black bracers and shin guards. "Hmm," he slipped them on, and to his delight they could be worn under his normal clothes without anyone noticing their presence.

"Energize!" he commanded, and the bracers/shin guards radiated a blinding silver glow. When the glow faded, William stood in his Lyoko outfit, with Zweihander in his hand.

William collapsed into smoke and zoomed under the door, remembering to take his key. He reformed and willed away his powers. "Nice," he remarked, and went to find the others.

* * *

Aeron, meanwhile, was getting up in the factory. "Hmm, it's kind of quiet today..." Aeron murmured, looking outside. "Where have all the partridges gone?"

Aeron sighed and went down to the supercomputer, intending to carry out something he'd been wanting to do…

…and discovered that a tower had been activated.

"Aw, man! I hate it when he does that!" Aeron set himself up for a virtualization, and went down to the scanner. He watched as the scanner closed. Well, here goes. Aeron thought.

Aeron closed his eyes as a strange wind blew through the scanner, whipping him into the digital world of Lyoko…

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

Jeremy and Aelita walked past the partridges, not really bothering to worry about the unusually large amount of partridges.

Suddenly, something smacked into Jeremy, causing him to stumble forward.

"What the-?!" Jeremy whirled around, and then heard Aelita scream. "Aelita!"

Aelita was under attack. The XANA-possessed partridges were tearing at her hair and clothes.

"Hey, back off!" Jeremy gathered up a snowball and pelted one of the partridges with it. He picked up a tree branch and then whacked lots of the partridges, but they got back up and began attacking him, too.

Aelita put a hand on her APW, ignoring the partridges, and then scrolled through and found the function that she'd been looking for.

"Jeremy! COVER YOUR EARS!!!" Aelita shouted, activating the function and quickly putting her hands over her ears.

The APW glowed white, and then let out an extremely high pitched whine that paralyzed all who heard it. Jeremy had barely managed to get his hands up in time. The APW kept broadcasting for five seconds, then it stopped.

The one thousand partridges were lying on the ground, twitching from the paralysis.

"Come on, it won't last for long," Aelita said, grabbing Jeremy's wrist and pulling him towards the nearest building.

Sure enough, the partridges shook off the paralysis and took to the air, chasing the two. They ran even faster, but then the partridges surrounded them, murder in their eyes.

"I guess this is game over, Aelita." Jeremy said, looking despairingly over his shoulder at the oncoming birdbrains.

Then a blast of energy sailed over their heads and smashed into the partridges, stunning them briefly.

"Huh?" Jeremy and Aelita asked, simultaneously. Totally unrehearsed.

"YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Odd yelled, charging at the birds with his new toy. He was whirling it in his hand and shooting the birds with a pulse laser that stunned them for a few moments.

"Odd, where'd you get that?" Aelita asked.

"Aeron made it for me! It's AWESOME!!!!!" Odd yelled, shooting a couple of pulses into the flock.

Ulrich suddenly sprinted past them and made an amazing jump into the air and slashed down another five partridges. "Hey there Jeremy, Aelita," he said, landing next to them. "Like 'em?"

"Yeah. Where'd you get that?" Aelita asked.

"Aeron made it. Man, this is good!" Ulrich said.

Then they heard a voice shout, "Razor Blast!" and a wave of energy sliced through the air, striking some of the partridges in mid-flight.

They turned and saw William standing there, full Lyoko attire. "I like my Christmas gift. How about you?" he asked, dissolving into smoke and soaring into the air, reforming and slashing more partridges.

Jeremy suddenly noticed some of the partridges gathering and pushing the giant Christmas tree in the courtyard over. "Odd, look out!" he shouted.

Odd looked up and saw the Christmas tree topppling towards him. William saw it and formed a ball of smoke in his hand, shooting it into Odd and sending him flying backwards toward safety. Moments later, the Christmas tree crashed down, shattering tons of windows as its branches crashed into them.

"Jeremy, Aelita, you guys head in. We've got this." Ulrich said, holding his katana and electrocuting another dozen birds.

They did, and Odd let loose his beastly sharpshooter skills. He nailed lots of the XANA-possessed partridges with laser shots, all the while showing off with cartwheels, backflips, etc. William skillfully slashed down partridges as they came, sometimes throwing a Razor Blast in for extra kick, overdoing it a little by exagerating his movements. Ulrich was a whirlwind of movement, slashing so quickly that his blade was a blur that looked like a tornado. Ulrich did all sorts of acrobatic movements, a few unneccessary, but he was good at it too.

"Showoffs," Aelita muttered.

* * *

**In Lyoko:**

Aeron virtualized next to the activated tower. He stood up and began bombarding it with heavy firepower. If you can't really picture him doing this, think high level kido, cero-like blasts that he calls Shinsei Taiho (Nova Cannon), a volley of lightning bolts, and then hacking and slashing with air blades.

Suddenly, Aeron looked up, sensing something. "You," he said.

"Long time no see, Aeron Awai-Solo." (Awai: light) an eerie voice spoke.

Standing in front of Aeron was, well, Aeron. A different Aeron. Whereas Aeron was usually garbed in robes of green and trimmed with gold, this Aeron was garbed in black, and had golden trimming. The sclera of his eyes was as dark as the deepest shadows, and his golden irises flickered with malice.

Aeron narrowed his eyes. "Aeron Anei-Solo," (Anei: shadow) he said, his voice a bare hiss.

"You remember me, then." Anei-Aeron said, smirking.

Aeron whipped his blade up barely in time to block an impossibly fast stroke from his foe, struck backwards a couple of inches before halting.

"Hmph. Still as weak as ever. You'll never beat XANA this way, fool." Anei-Aeron said, lifting his finger and pointing it at him. A ball of black light formed, three lines of energy arcing into it. Three more added themselves to the mix, and then three more.

Aeron smirked in response. "Your arrogance is your own downfall, Anei." Aeron said.

"Same to you, Awai." Anei-Aeron retorted. "Shinsei Taiho!"

Aeron's smirk widened and then, without warning, he flash stepped away, causing Anei-Aeron's energy to smash into the activated tower.

"Oops," Anei-Aeron said, as the tower went offline, thus, the partridges stopped in midair, then fell, unconscious.

"Aw, it's over?" Odd asked, disappointed.

Aeron pulled up a screen from his bracer and then selected a materialization option. He waved as he went back to the real world. "Later, loser!" he said as he dissolved into data screens. Anei-Aeron howled in frustration.

The scanner opened, and Aeron climbed out, pulling up his APW and dialing up Jeremy. "Jeremy? Everything alright on your end?" he asked, walking into the elevator as he did so.

"Not really, no. XANA possessed a thousand partridges and attacked the school. They knocked over the Christmas Tree in the courtyard, and lots of the windows are wrecked."

"That bad, huh?" Aeron asked, walking out of the elevator and sitting at the computer.

"Yes. It'd be nice if you could activate a time reversion."

"No problem," Aeron said, keying in some commands on the computer. "Return to the past, now!"

The supercomputer produced a massive wave of power, engulfing the entire world…


	3. On the 2nd day of Xmas

_On the second day of X-mas, my worst foe gave to me,_

_Two rabid dogs,_

_And a partridge (x 1000) in a pear tree..._

* * *

**The Factory:**

Aeron woke up. "Two days of Christmas." He remarked, getting out of bed.

He made his way down to the computer and began rapidly keying in stuff. He was working on a little project that was sort of Christmas related, and he was intent on completing it before the gang arrived that day.

He sighed. He had been ready to do it before the Time Reversion, but XANA's interference caused him to delay his project.

Aeron was rapidly keying in codes, and soon he created what he had been intent on creating. "Yes!" he crowed.

He was just about to finish up the process and move on to another part of the project when suddenly the tower alert beeped.

"Again?!" Aeron searched the system and located the tower.

"What's with XANA today? It usually takes him a lot of time to prepare an attack, and he never attacks right after a Time Reversion!" Aeron said, frowning.

Aeron whirled his APW a couple of times. "Gotta check up on Einstein..."

* * *

**K****adic Academy, courtyard:**

Jeremy and the others were in the courtyard talking about their gifts.

"My blaster can be set to automatic! It can scope! It can..." Odd bragged a bit while the others sat around, rolling their eyes.

William cleared his throat. "I don't think your present can summon your Lyoko powers, can it?" Odd stopped, turning to William.

"So? Einstein can give us our Lyoko powers anytime we want!" Odd said.

"But I can do it whenever I want." William said, dissolving into smoke and reappearing behind Odd, in Lyoko attire.

"William, stop showing off." Jeremy said, frowning.

"Sorry, just trying to prove my point." William said, returning to normal.

Ulrich noticed something. "Huh? What's with those dogs?"

There were a pair of dogs trotting towards them. Howevger, there was something wrong with them. Both had signs that they were rabid.

"Uh-oh," Ulrich said nervously, getting up and shifting away.

Then he saw the dogs look at him, and the eye of XANA pulsated briefly in their eyes.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Ulrich screamed, running, as the dogs growled and shot towards him, pursuing him.

"WHY ME?!!!! WHY NOT ODD????!!!!!" he yelled, running into the school.

The others went in just in time to see Ulrich run down one corrider with the dogs hot on his heels. Then down another, with the dogs still on his heels. Then the dogs ran out from another corrider, pursuing nothing. Ulrich ran out of a fourth, and then suddenly skidded to a halt, turned, and ran the other way faster than he came, the two dogs barking at him.

"I think Ulrich needs some help." William said as Ulrich jumped over them.

"I think you're right." Odd said as the dogs soon followed, careful to avoid their flying spittle.

Aelita jumped backward to avoid a particularily large amount of spittle. "Yuck!" she said, careful not to step in the glop.

Jeremy suddenly felt his APW vibrate. He hit the screen and put his thumb on his ear and his pinky on his mouth, making a play phone with his hand. "Hello?"

"Jeremy? It's me, Aeron. XANA's activated another tower."

"Already?!" Jeremy asked. "No wonder these dogs are behaving so wierdly!"

"Dogs? What, are they rabid or something!"

Jeremy ducked underneath one of the dogs as it jumped over him. "Actually..."

"Oh, no." Aeron groaned. "Tell Aelita to paralyze them. I'll dismantle the tower as soon as possible."

"Hurry up, Aeron." Jeremy said, then he closed the connection.

William looked at Jeremy. "Well?"

"Cover your ears!" Jeremy shouted at him.

"Ok, no need to yell!" William said, covering his ears.

"Ulrich, did you hear that?!" Odd called.

"Of course! Jeremy yelled loud enough to wake the dead!" Ulrich hastily replied, running past them.

William held out Zweihander and ran one of the dogs through with it. Not that it did much good, though. They were spectre-possessed, and as such they were unable to be more than stunned by a physical blow.

"William?" Aelita asked cautiously, finding the paralysis function.

"I know!" William covered his ears, as did everyone else, even Ulrich.

Aelita activated it, then covered her ears. Moments later, a high frequency sound wave vibrated through the area, sending the rabid dogs howling and thrashing to the ground. Ulrich sprinted away, managing to get out of range of all the flying spittle.

When the whine stopped, the dogs were lying on the ground, stilled by the paralysis.

"Come on. Close the doors." Jeremy said, going into the courtyard.

They did, and found a flock of partridges waiting for them. In the pear tree.

"HUH???!!!! WHY THIS AGAIN???!!!!"Odd yelled, shooting a laser pulse into their midst.

They evaded, only to be captured by a wave of Ulrich's electricity.

"There, that should hold them for a bit." Ulrich said, sheathing his sword.

"A bit" proved to be about two seconds. No sooner had they passed the fallen birds than they were up again, really really mad.

"Uh-oh," Jeremy said.

* * *

**Ishiyama Residence, Yumi's room:**

Yumi woke up to hear her cell phone ringing. She picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"

"Yumi? It's me, Aeron. Can you come to the factory? It's urgent."

"What? XANA's attacking?" Yumi asked, getting dressed.

"Yeah. Listen, I left you a present last night, and I was hoping that I could teach you to use it properly, but there's no time. Inside is a device that can split open reality and let you slip through space to any given location. Use it to travel quickly to the factory."

"Got it." Yumi picked up the parcel and opened it, revealing an APW. "A watch?"

"An APW." Aeron corrected. "This one has the special ability to warp the user through space and time. That power can only be used once every ten minutes, though, so be warned."

Yumi put it on, and registered herself to it. Then she scrolled through the functions and found "dimension gate".

_Here goes nothing_, she thought, activating it.

Instantly, the screen asked, _where would you like to go?_

"The factory," Yumi said.

The screen showed an image of the factory. _Opening gate,_ it said underneath.

Then the screen closed and a line of energy formed. The line of energy stretched open to reveal the factory.

Hardly believing her luck, Yumi stepped through, and the portal closed behind her. Yumi looked around. She was on the bridge to the factory.

"Wow," she said. Then she turned and ran to the elevator, going down to the computer room.

Aeron turned and saw her. "Ah, so it worked out." He began preparing a timed virtualiztion.

"Let's go." Aeron ran into the elevator, and they went to the scanner room. They stepped into the scanners, and soon after, they closed. They closed their eyes as a mysterious wind whipped them into Lyoko...

* * *

**Lyoko, Mountain Region:**

Aeron and Yumi virtualized next to the tower.

"Hmm. No monsters," Aeron noted. He turned and began to blast the tower with high powered energy blasts.

"What can I do?" Yumi asked.

Aeron looked around. "Lift up that slab of rock and hammer the tower with it."

Yumi saw it and began slamming the tower with it using telekinesis.

"That's it! Keep it up, we're almost done!" Aeron said.

Sure enough, the tower was weakening against their blows.

Aeron suddenly turned. "Not here, too!" he groaned.

A shadow darted across the ground and then formed into Anei-Aeron. "On the second day of Christmas..." he jokingly said.

Aeron rolled his eyes and attacked. The two began exchanging blows at hypersonic speed.

"Hey! I didn't even finish my line!" yelled Anei-Aeron.

"Where is it then?" Aeron replied. "You never started drawing!"

"Oh, ha-ha, you're very funny, you know that?" Anei-Aeron asked sarcastically. "So, on the-"

"SHUT THE H*** UP!" yelled Aeron, slamming Anei-Aeron into the ground.

"ARGH!!!" Anei-Aeron yelled. "Why, you little-!"

"Little?! We're the exact same size!!" Aeron retorted.

Anei-Aeron opened his mouth to respond, and found that he couldn't find a comeback.

"I hate it when he's right," Anei-Aeron muttered.

"I'm always right!" replied Aeron, smiling smugly. They kept clashing.

"Aeron, what do I do?" Yumi asked.

"Keep hitting the tower! It'll go offline soon!" Aeron called.

Yumi nodded and kept hammering the tower.

Aeron ducked low under Anei-Aeron's slash. His blade came up in a upward vertical slash.

Anei-Aeron sidestepped it and slashed horizontally, which Aeron blocked and then he twirled his sword in a circle, flipping the sword out of Anei-Aeron's hand.

Anei-Aeron simply held out his hand, and it came back. "Hmph. You're pathetic." He placed his hand on the guard of his sword.

Aeron mimiced his shadow counterpart's stance. "_Rule over the raging heavens_," they said together.

"_Tsubasa no Rai-oh!_" They moved their hands along the length of their blades, transforming them. They then leapt at each other, striking and slashing faster than human eyes could follow. All the while, the sound of digital rock connecting with the tower echoed across Lyoko.

Aeron blocked a strike to his face. "You'll never win, you know." he said to Anei-Aeron.

"Why's that?" Anei-Aeron asked.

"Light always prevails in the end." Aeron informed him.

"Who's end will it be, then?" Anei-Aeron retorted.

"That doesn't even sound cool!" Aeron shouted. "What do you mean by that, anyway?!!"

Yumi almost keeled over. Boys could be so dumb sometimes!

"I am not dumb!" they both yelled. "_He's _the dumb one!" they both added, pointing at each other.

_Oh great! Now they can read my mind!_ she thought.

Yumi smashed the tower one final time. The tower rumbled and went offline.

"Yes!" Aeron crowed, then whirled around and slashed Anei-Aeron fifteen times.

"OWWW!!! THAT WAS CHEAP!!!!" Anei-Aeron yelled.

"You're right. I always like to save money." Aeron joked.

Yumi rocked back on her heels. Boys could be REALLY dumb sometimes!

"I am not dumb!" they both yelled. "_He's _the dumb one!" they both added, pointing at each other.

"You guys said that already..." Yumi pointed out.

"So? The more the merrier." Aeron smirked as Yumi smacked herself on the forehead.

"Sayonara, sucker!" Aeron said to Anei-Aeron, keying in the command for himself and Yumi to be materialized. Aeron was smug up till the end, smirking as he dissolved into data screens.

Anei-Aeron howled in frustration. His light half had outwitted him. Again.

* * *

Aeron and Yumi came out of the scanner. Aeron dialed up Jeremy. "Hello? Einstein?"

"You got the tower offline, right?" Jeremy asked. "Because the partridges are out cold."

"You mean that figuratively or literally? I think it'd be easy to be out cold since it's cold outside."

"Ah ha ha ha. Very funny." Jeremy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Thank you. I'm such a comedian, aren't I?" Aeron's voice was equally sarcastic.

"Just shut up already," Jeremy muttered.

"Shall I make it the third day of Christmas?"

"Go right ahead. The school's wrecked. Again." Jeremy said.

"Got it. Return to the past. Again." Aeron said.

Jeremy rolled his eyes as the power wave whisked them into the past for the second time in a row...


	4. On the 3rd day of Xmas

_On the third day of X-mas, my worst foe gave to me,_

_Three hornets,_

_Two rabid dogs…_

_And a partridge (x 1000) in a pear tree…_

* * *

**The Factory:**

Aeron got up. Again.

_Well, what happens on the third day of Christmas, I wonder?_ Aeron thought as he ventured to the computer and began keying in rapidly.

Aeron was trying to work on creating something in Lyoko and then materializing it into the real world to make it so that he would have an infinite amount of stuff to work with. He had spent the last few weeks perfecting this process, and was now trying it out.

Unfortunately, XANA had interfered each time that Aeron put his plan into action, and so Aeron was forced to put it off for a little bit. Therefore, he decided something:

He would get all the stuff virtualized first. Then, he would materialize them, one by one, no matter how long it took. It would be easier that way, as the time reversions wouldn't affect what was within Lyoko.

Aeron got another part finished and moved on, hoping to get it all virtualized before the gang came.

* * *

**Kadic Academy:**

The rest of the gang was talking about stuff in the courtyard when suddenly a dimensional portal opened up and Yumi stepped through it. It closed behind her as she came up and sat next to the others. "Hey guys."

Everyone stared, slack jawed. Ulrich was the first to recover from the shock. "How did you do that?"

"Oh, Aeron gave me an APW with the power to slip from place to place through portals." Yumi said casually.

"Did he now?" Aelita asked thoughtfully. She was pondering what it would take to open up a dimension gate. However smart Aeron was, he was definitely light-years ahead of the regular human world's science.

"So you got a present too?" Jeremy asked.

Yumi nodded. "And the rest of you?" she asked.

They all nodded in turn and showed her their gifts. Jeremy's APW's special power was remote hacking, allowing him to hijack anything electronic, and being able to operate the supercomputer from off-site. Aelita's had the power to overload all audio sensors with a high pitched frequency, causing paralysis. In addition to that, she was able to access the supercomputer and power up herself and others around her with their Lyoko powers. Of course, the two had been toying with them that morning before going outside to figure that out. You know the others' abilities.

"Well, that guy is something." Yumi remarked. "How smart is he?"

"No one knows. We'd need to do an IQ test to find out." Jeremy said. "When did you find out that your APW could do that, Yumi?"

"Before the last time reversion. He told me how to use it so I could get to the factory quicker and help him "deactivate" the tower."

"Anything unusual happen in Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, actually. A clone of Aeron appeared, dressed in black rather than green and with eyes that had black sclera and golden irises. Their energy was different in the same way as their clothing."

"Anything about him that's particularily confusing?" Jeremy asked, frowning and wondering about this sudden turn of events.

"Only that Aeron seemed to know about him." Yumi said.

"Hmm. I wonder what he is?" Jeremy mused.

William suddenly perked up. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you guys about something."

"We're eyes and ears, William." Aelita said, turning so she could pay attention to what he was saying.

"Aeron upgraded my avatar!"

That came as a surprise. "What's the upgrade?" Jeremy asked.

William grinned. "Phasing," he said.

Everyone gave him a blank stare, except for Jeremy and Aelita, who felt their jaws clatter to the floor.

"Phasing?!" Jeremy asked after he had retrieved the lower half of his jaw.

"Yup."

"Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Einstein, for those of us who aren't as smart as you are, could you explain what phasing is?" Odd asked.

"Phasing is a powerful ability that allows the user to lower their molecular density by a lot and pass through or let pass any kind of matter." Jeremy said.

"Princess, translation please?" Odd asked, having understood none of what Jeremy said.

"It means that anyone with that ability can walk through solid objects without damaging themselves or the objects." Aelita said.

Odd whistled. "That's a sweet ability. How come I didn't get anything?"

Suddenly, a small dimensional portal opened and Aeron's face was shown through it. "Because I'm working on yours, and you haven't tested it out."

Aelita shrieked, as she hadn't really been expecting this. The others jumped, and then sat back, trying to let their heartbeats slow down.

"Well, well. All I have to do is use a dimension gate to communicate with you and you all lose your composure. How utterly impressive." Aeron's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he typed.

"Ha-ha, hilarious. You come up with that yourself? That's very funny," said Odd, equally sarcastic.

"Yes. I did. Now why don't you STOP IMITATING MY SARCASM???!!!!!!" Aeron was sarcastic at first, but then hollered out the last part with such ferocity that...

* * *

**Hoenn Region:**

".....STOP IMITATING MY SARCASM???!!!!!!"

"You hear something?" Axel asked Pikachu. They were at a fast food stop.

"Huh?" asked Pikachu.

"Hmm." said Axel. "Come on, let's get to Sinnoh."

Chikorita was complaining loudly that her drink had spilled all over the place.

Pikachu quickly wolfed down his everything-sundae with everything (literally) on top. "Okaaay! Let's go!"

* * *

**Somewhere else in the Hoenn Region:**

".....STOP IMITATING MY SARCASM???!!!!!!"

Winona, Ash, Anabel, and Wallace were helping Aerín to build a snowman when suddenly the yell rocketed across the landscape, causing them all to jump up in alarm and fall ungraciously on their backsides (so much for "graceful" shipping, heh-heh). The force also blew up the snowman.

"Huh?" Aerín looked around, confused. "Where'd the snowman go?" She then looked down at them all. "What happened to you all?"

"Didn't you just hear that yell?" Ash asked, his ears still ringing.

Anabel was buried under what was left of the snowman. "Um, hey? A little help here?"

Ash went over and pulled her out. "Phew, thanks Ash." Anabel brushed off the snow on her coat.

"What yell, Ash?" Aerín was confused.

Wallace then noted that she was wearing a pair of headphones that she had gotten from Axel. "Oh, that's why."

For those who don't know about it, Axel designed his headphones to block out the loudest sounds, and let in regular talking. He created them to help guard himself from Aeron yelling at him, as Aeron's yelling was often heard 'round the world. They couldn't block them out completely, but they reduced them to mere whispers.

"Now we'll have to rebuild the snowman..." Winona muttered. "Hey, where'd the carrot go, anyway?"

Pikachu was trying to hide the fact that he was eating it.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

"WAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The gang was bowled over by the force of Aeron's yell. It had created an intense wind that sent them flying.

"Oops," Aeron said sheepishly, creating a little vortex that snared them and set them gently on the ground.

"If only we had headphones that could block out his yells," Ulrich groaned, clutching his poor ears.

Perhaps they'd have to refer to Axel, eh?

"Sorry guys. I'd better hold myself in check next time, eh?" Aeron asked, still typing. They all nodded weakly in agreement.

Yumi finally managed to recover enough of her thought process to ask Aeron, "Hey, Aeron, what was that guy in Lyoko?"

"That guy?" Aeron asked, conjuring anmage of his shadowy counterpart. Yumi nodded. "That is my inner hollow, or, more accurately, the shadow that was once contained in my body."

"Inner hollow? That sounds a lot like Bleach." Ulrich said.

"Actually, it is part of Bleach. Soul Reapers exist, Ulrich. We're just in an extra dimension." Aeron said.

"Which means..."

Aeron sighed. "Sometimes I wish that I could give you a brain extension. Ok, Soul Reapers exist in a figurative fourth dimension in reality, as do all spiritual entities. We can harm beings in the regular three dimensions, but only people that have access to that fourth dimension can harm us. I mean, can matter harm ghosts?"

"No, I guess not." Ulrich agreed, seeing Aeron's point.

"Finally. He sees what I mean." Aeron said.

"So, what about your inner hollow?" Yumi asked, intent on learning the truth.

"You know what I am. He is my polar opposite. While I am more prone to practical jokes, he is more likely to vandalize. While I prefer not to kill, he will not hesitate to murder. He is what I am not, and I had to supress him when he was within me."

"However, when I was accidentally pieced back together by XANA, some of my powers weren't pulled in. He was one of them. I think that in order to recover my memories, I have to reclaim my powers. He certainly seems to know more about my life than I know about it myself. I found this out when I probed his mind briefly. I caught glimpses of memories that didn't fit with the person who had them."

"So, where are your powers?" Aelita asked.

Aeron waved his hand in a broad gesture. "Out in the network somewhere. I suppose XANA has discovered my powers and sucked them in for his own use, maybe to fuel his more powerful attacks." He sighed. "I wish that I wasn't so powerful. That might have made it so that XANA wouldn't have such a powerful general now."

Aelita reached through the portal and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault."

Aeron smiled gratefully, and then they had that odd deja-vu moment. Again.

You'd think that Jeremy would be jealous, but oddly enough, he wasn't. He noticed that Aeron and Aelita's relationship was more like family rather than boyfriend-girlfriend. He wondered what that meant.

Aeron suddenly turned to the screen, concern on his face. "Uh-oh, what's that?"

Aeron began rapidly keying in as he checked the tower system. "Not good. An activated tower." He turned to the others. "Guys, I'm sorry that I have to interrupt your group chat, but I need you here ASAP."

"I can't hold this communication portal open for much longer, so Yumi, transport yourself and the others directly into the scanner room. Including Jeremy."

"Huh?! Why me?!" Jeremy was shocked.

"No questions, Einstein. Just get with the program." Aeron's eyes had a mischievous glint in them that made Jeremy nervous. "Catch you later." And with that, the portal closed.

Yumi opened the portal and gestured. "Go through. I have to go last, or else the portal will close before anyone else can go through."

The others filed through, Jeremy first. Yumi looked around before going through herself.

Unbeknownst to them, two rabid dogs and a thousand partridges took to the streets, ready to pester the locals.

* * *

**The Factory:**

"Alright guys. Are you ready to rumble?"

Aeron was preparing the virtualization process for the others. The others were all standing in the scanner room, waiting for the green light. All except Jeremy.

"I'll see you guys when you're out of Lyoko," Jeremy said, walking to the elevator.

"Get him!" Aeron yelled.

"Wha-?! Hey!!"

Ulrich and Odd suddenly flattened Jeremy.

"Guys?! What's the idea?!" Jeremy yelled, confused.

"Sorry Jeremy, but we've got other ideas for you." Ulrich said, hauling him up and shoving him into the scanner. Before Jeremy could protest, Aeron snapped his fingers, and the scanner closed.

Aeron cackled loudly, cracking his knuckles and keying in the final commands. "Transfer, Jeremy."

Aelita and William got into the other scanners. "Transfer Aelita. Transfer William."

"Aeron, what's the idea?! I hate going to Lyoko!!" Jeremy yelled. "Let me outta here!!"

"Sorry Einstein. Merry Christmas, scanner, and virtualization."

_I'll get him for this,_ Jeremy thought as he felt a strange wind whip him into the digital world of Lyoko...

* * *

**Lyoko, Forest Sector:**

The three were virtualized and landed on the ground. Aelita and William landed on their feet. Jeremy landed ungraciously on his rear end. "Oof!"

"Ow," he muttered, getting up.

"Wow, Einstein, that's an awesome outfit. I don't understand why you don't like going to Lyoko," William remarked.

"What are you talking about? I look ridiculous in Lyoko!" Jeremy protested.

Aelita made a mirror of ice in front of him. "Once upon a time. Now..."

Jeremy could feel his mouth drop open. Jeremy had an armor-like outfit that was made of metallic blue and silver components. It looked sort of like the outfit of Wes (Silvershades) from Pokemon Colosseum, except with a different body design, similar to William's first outfit in Lyoko but having mysterious blue patterns across the chest. He had a strange device on his left arm, forming a sort of armor on that arm, and he had a Spartan Laser colored to match his outfit. He still had glasses, but they were sleeker and had clear blue lenses.

"That gun's cool. When can I get one?" asked William.

"Try never," replied Aeron, keying more commands in.

"Aw, man," said William.

"Sit tight, people. The others are on their way."

Odd, Ulrich and Yumi came. They were quite surprised at Jeremy's new look, but took it in stride.

"All right, Aeron. Where's the tower?" Odd asked.

"Jeremy can tell you. It's on his tactical radar."

"How do access that?" Jeremy asked.

"Think about it. That armor is uploaded to your neural system, so it'll respond to your thoughts like your body responds to your thoughts.

Jeremy pulled up the radar, and located the activated tower. "It's a few miles North."

"So, what do we do about vehicles?" Odd asked.

"Jeremy can do that too. Listen, our friends in the real world from the last attack are wrecking havoc, so I'm going to deal with them. I gave Jeremy his APW so that he would be able to help you on-sight as well as off. What that means is that you guys can use the APWs within Lyoko, and expect no hindrance."

"So that means that Jeremy can give us our vehicles from here?" Odd asked.

"Correct. Gotta go. Good luck!" Aeron jumped away from the computer and opened a gate to the site of the partridges and dogs, which he stepped through.

"Well, Jeremy? What're you waiting for?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremy called up their vehicles. They jumped on them, and they zoomed off.

* * *

**Kadic Academy:**

Aeron stepped out of the portal and saw the dogs and the partridges. "Why, hello there," Aeron said, drawing his blade.

He watched as the little army came towards him. _This ought to be interesting,_ he thought.

* * *

**Back in Lyoko:**

Jeremy rode with Ulrich on the Overbike, nervously shifting his grip on his laser.

"Hey...when did _that_ get there?" William suddenly asked, pointing.

Everyone stared. It was a Warthog (from Halo 3).

* * *

**Back at Kadic Academy:**

Aeron suddenly remembered that he virtualized a warthog for Jeremy (that was experimental), but he forgot to devirtualize it later.

"Well, now Jeremy's not gonna have a vehicle..." Aeron muttered, feeling guilty.

If only he knew, eh?

Aeron snapped back to reality as one of the dogs jumped up, snarling and spraying saliva everywhere. Aeron exerted a bit of ice-type spiritual pressure to freeze the stuff in its tracks. He then brought up his blade and used hyouketsu bakuha to freeze the dog itself in its tracks.

A cluster of birds flew down, shrieking. Aeron turned and let loose a volley of lightning bolts, sending them crashing to the ground.

"This should be over in short order," Aeron commented.

"Not if _I_ have anything to say about it," Aeron heard.

"Oh, boy." Aeron muttered. He leapt upwards as a shadowy black blade with a gold indent swiped at his legs.

Aeron came down spinning like a tornado, his momentum carrying his blade into the one of his foe with ferocious force. His foe just laughed and reinforced his sword with spiritul energy. Then he raised his finger and unleashed a black pulse of energy shrouded in a golden nimbus, which Aeron sucked into his blade and threw back in the form of an icy stream of energy, which Anei-Aeron enveloped with heat and flame.

"Well, well. I guess XANA can materialize you into the real world?" Aeron asked.

"Exactly. And I'm not the only one."

Anei-Aeron suddenly seemed to vanish before his eyes. Aeron ducked as a silvery blade slashed at his head from behind.

Aeron somersaulted backwards and brought his blade down on the silvery blade held by Kitsune.

"Day three, and you're already having problems. I'd feel sorry for you if you survive to see day four," the human-fox hybrid with silver hair said calmly.

"You guys are the worst pains in the neck," Aeron muttered. "I really have to use Tylenol on you."

"Ha-ha, very funny. Your stupidity astounds me." Kitsune said flatly.

"Look who's talking." Aeron replied, showing him a glowing black energy sphere in his hand shrouded with a purple nimbus.

Kitsune's eyes widened. "Thats-!"

"Hado 90: _Kurohitsugi._" Aeron uttered, encaging Kitsune with a black and purple box, then lacerating him from head to toe with energy spears colored the same way as the box.

When the energy cleared up, Kitsune was panting heavily, anger in his eyes and heavily damaged.

"You're irritating, you know that?" Aeron asked.

"You should talk." Kitsune replied. He put his hand on his blade. "_Distort reality...Kyokkai Shukun!_" (Distortion Lord)

Kitsune's blade turned reflective, its guard changing into a circle with vine-like carving encircling the edge, and then shrouded him in a cloud of light. The world suddenly shattered into fragments of images.

_What is reality? What is not? With my Zanpaku-to, you have no way of knowing._ Aeron heard Kitsune's voice echo all around him. Aeron had no way of knowing where his voice was coming from.

_Calm yourself,_ he told himself. _Eyes are not the only way of finding your foe._

Aeron closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. He could feel the presence of wildlife underneath him, the humming of the life within the trees...and his shadow self's smug consciousness, totally unaware that his mind was being invaded.

_I haven't used this power in so long that he's forgotten it,_ Aeron thought, careful to guard his own thoughts. He then reached through Anei-Aeron and then found his darker self's eyes, seeing himself, his eyes closed and hunched over in what his opponents thought was despair. He saw Kitsune, standing just over him, about to deal a death-blow.

Aeron struck, catching Kitsune completely off guard. He stood and, looking through Anei-Aeron's eyes, slashed Kitsune across the chest.

Kitsune jumped backwards, blood dripping from his wound. "Well, isn't that annoying," he commented. His illusions faded, and he held his hand over his injury. It began to glow, and after a few moments it faded, revealing the flesh to be unblemished and whole.

"Well isn't that nice. You have instant regen." Aeron said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. As usual.

"I know. Isn't it lovely?" Kitsune was equally sarcastic.

"You know, for your own health, I thought you might want to know that I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE IMITATE MY SARCASM!!!!" Aeron hollered out the last bit after saying the first bit slightly softer than talking volume.

* * *

**In Hoenn:**

"...I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE IMITATE MY SARCASM!!!!!"

A yell blew across the landscape of Hoenn, smashing past Axel and Pikachu like an intense wind.

"You hear something?" Axel asked Pikachu, stopping his motorcycle. His headphones were on.

"Huh?" Pikachu had no idea what he was talking about. He had earphones in his ears.

"Hmm. C'mon, let's continue on." Axel said.

"Okay! Keep driving, Axel!" Pikachu said.

Chikorita was complaining loudly because the map had been blown in her face.

* * *

**Elsewhere in Hoenn:**

"...I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE IMITATE MY SARCASM!!!!!"

Aerín and company were inside sipping hot cocoa when the yell blew across like a 70 mph wind, except less destructive.

They were blown to the side slightly, then they returned to their normal positions after it went.

"That's the second time today. Someone's yelling pretty loudly," Winona commented, stiring her cocoa a little before taking a sip.

"Mm-hm. I wonder who it is? Only Aeron had the power to yell that loud," Wallace mused.

If only he knew.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

Aeron's yell blew them away. Literally. Getting hit by Aeron's yell at point blank is like getting hit with a home-run bat in Super Smash Bros. Brawl: it really sucks to get hit.

Anei-Aeron and Kitsune smashed hard into the concrete walls of Kadic, smashing into them hard enough get some lovely bruises.

"Well, soon they'll have rather attractive injuries," Aeron commented. (Get it? _Lovely_ bruises? XD)

Aeron heard his foes get up, and turned to face them. "Want some more, eh?" he asked.

"No, we're going to give you more." Anei-Aeron replied. "Or at least, Kitsune will. I myself am going to meet your friends in Lyoko. Later, loser." And with that, he vanished into a black portal.

"Curse you," Aeron muttered. Then he turned to face Kitsune.

"Well, fox-face, let's finish this." Aeron took on a combat stance, holding his sword out, and was immediately smashed in the face by Kitsune throwing a punch.

"DON'T CALL ME FOX-FACE!" yelled Kitsune.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in Lyoko:**

"Come on, guys. Nail them already!"

Odd, Yumi, and Aelita were busy trying to hit a squad of three hornets. Usually, they were able to do this with extreme ease, but today the hornets were unbelievably quick and elusive, not to mention unpredictable.

William growled and swung Zweihander, sending a Razor Blast into the air, barely missing one of the hornets. William sent three blasts consecutively, but the hornets evaded them all.

"How are they so fast?" Ulrich muttered. He jumped into the air and attempted to destroy one with a melee attack, but it shot him twice and smashed him into the ground.

Jeremy got out from behind the Warthog, which had resisted all attempts to destroy it, and took aim. That's when a shadowy blast of energy exploded next to him, sending him flying.

Anei-Aeron smirked as he melted out of the shadows. "How pathetic. I suppose you weren't suspecting a fourth enemy, huh?"

Ulrich looked at him and then turned to the others. "Keep going. I'll deal with him."

They dashed off. Ulrich and the shadowy Aeron circled.

"Either you've got guts, or you're insane. Which is it?" questioned Anei-Aeron.

"I don't really know." _Maybe a bit of both,_ Ulrich thought to himself.

"Whatever." Anei-Aeron charged and slashed at lightning speed. Ulrich barely brought up his own blades in time.

Ulrich grunted from the exertion of blocking the hollow's attack. He was forced backward a few inches.

_Holy! I never knew that Aeron commanded this level of power!_ He thought, struggling to keep Anei-Aeron's blade away from his face. Anei-Aeron was barely trying; he even looked bored. He even said: "Booooooring."

Ulrich used his super-sprint to zoom away from his foe. Anei-Aeron looked highly amused by this, and suddenly vanished in a blur. He reappeared in Ulrich's path, his blade outstretched. "Crap!" Ulrich yelled.

Ulrich flattened himself to the ground to avoid the blade. He missed it by millimeters. Unable to stop his forward momentum, he skidded forward and crashed headlong into a tree trunk, dazing him.

Anei-Aeron raised his sword again, about to deliver a "killing" blow. Ulrich's eyes were drawn to the blade that would send him back to the real world, when his viewpoint shattered, leaving only the blade and Anei-Aeron's vulnerable points.

Inexplicably, Ulrich jumped up, whipping up both his blades and blocking the blade.

"Eh?" Anei-Aeron asked, confused. He struck one, then twice. Ulrich parried both blows with one sword each, then lashed out with both blades, slashing Anei-Aeron across the chest and on the neck.

"ARRRGGGHH!!!!" Anei-Aeron yelled, critically injured by the blow. He dropped to one knee, looking at him.

"Curse you...what is this strange power?" Anei-Aeron wondered. "No matter. I will crush you with the force of my BANKAI!!!!"

Black energy flooded out of him, surrounded by a golden nimbus. Ulrich calmly prepared his blades for combat, watching as a storm cloud of incomprehensible size formed over the entire sector. Wind and rain, which had not been present before in the Forest Sector, began to whip up, battering at our heroes with inexorable force.

The tower of energy peeled away, revealing in its place a tower of ice. Standing high atop it was Anei-Aeron, his shihakusho now an ankle-length long sleeved black coat with gold lining. Lightning began flashing, terrifyingly bright in the darkness. Carried in Anei-Aeron's hand was a black blade, with a golden indent. The design was similar to the shikai blade, but it was much fancier, with a blade that curved outwards a few inches after the spikes on the guard ended, and then sloped gently down into a sharp point.

"_Senkei: Kage no Rai-oh."_ Anei-Aeron said.

Ulrich narrowed his eyes, preparing for the dark one's attack.

Suddenly, a blade jutted from his chest, instantly de-virtualizing him. Ulrich turned his head in time to see that Anei-Aeron held the blade, smirking.

"Sorry, boy," Anei-Aeron said as Ulrich dissolved. "I'm just too quick for you."

* * *

**Elsewhere in the Forest Sector:**

"Not good. Ulrich's just been de-virtualized." Jeremy said.

"Well isn't that swell?" Odd asked sarcastically as he tried hitting the hornets. "We need better tracking if we're going to hit these things now!"

William had been overwhelmed a few moments ago by all the laser fire that the hornets were generating, and the hornets had taken out the vehicles in near-misses. They were now down to 40 to 60 life points each.

Jeremy tried to help, but he was sent flying by another shadowy blast of energy. "Waah!!!"

"Hey, look who's back," Anei-Aeron said tauntingly, strolling down the path.

Odd, Yumi, and Aelita all turned their fire on him. He laughed and slashed away all their shots. He didn't notice, however, that Jeremy had gotten up and leveled his laser at him...and that all three hornets were moving into a line after him, not knowing that their doom was coming.

Jeremy pulled the trigger, and his weapon blasted a blue-white laser beam that speared Anei-Aeron and all three hornets at once, instantly destroying the hornets and severely weakening Anei-Aeron.

"ARRGGHH!!" Anei-Aeron shouted, crippled by the shot. He turned to see Jeremy power up another shot.

"As you Japanese people say, "sayonara"!" Jeremy said, hitting the being of darkness one last time. Aeron's inner hollow howled in frustration (as usual) as he was de-virtualized.

"I think I know why these are called "Spartan" lasers now." Jeremy commented. "Like their namesakes, they're monstrously powerful."

"Mm-hmm. Now, can we keep going?" Odd asked.

"What for? The tower's right there." Jeremy said, pointing.

They turned and saw that the tower was just 10 ft away... on another path.

"Great! So how are we going to get over there?" Odd asked.

Jeremy pulled up a screen and began hacking into Lyoko's terrain.

"What're you doing, Jeremy?" Aelita asked, curious.

"I'm building a bridge." Jeremy said, hitting one final command.

Another path formed in between them and the path. Aelita ran to the tower and went inside. She stood in the center of the Eye of XANA, and then levitated to the next platform, doing a flip as she did so. She pulled up the data screen and entered the code.

Meanwhile, the others observed as the tower changed from red to light blue.

"So that's that." Odd said. "Let's get back to reality."

"No problem. Materialization, Aelita. Materialization, Yumi. Materialization, Odd."

The three closed their eyes as they dissolved into data screens. Moments later, the scanners opened, revealing the three.

"Now to materialize myself..." Jeremy muttered, materializing himself. He came out of the same scanner that Aelita had exited a few moments before.

Aelita helped him out. "How was your trip to Lyoko, Jeremy?"

"Not too bad, actually." Jeremy admitted.

William broadcasted across the comm, "That's great, Einstein. Should I initiate a return to the past?"

"Be my guest, William." Jeremy said.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

Aeron looked around at the fallen partridges and dogs. Then he grinned at Kitsune. "Looks like we win today, fox-face."

Kitsune glowered at him. Aeron snapped a picture of his infuriated expression just before the time reversion's power wave engulfed them, whipping them into the past for the third time in a row...


	5. On the 4th day of Xmas

_On the fourth day of X-mas, my worst foe gave to me,_

_Four kankerlats,_

_Three hornets,_

_Two rabid dogs,_

_And a partridge in a pear tree..._

* * *

**Soul Society, Sixth Company Stable:**

"Captain?"

"Yes, Renji?"

"Doesn't it feel like we've been living this day over and over again?" A young man with scarlet red hair and tattoos all over him, replacing his eyebrows even (therefore earning him the nickname "goofy tattooed eyebrows man") asked.

"Why do you ask, Renji?" his captain, a tall black-haired man shaped into locks by hair ornaments called kenseikan, commonly worn by the Kuchiki clan (which were one of Seireitei's four Great Noble Families), asked him. That man, as you Bleach fans can probably guess, was Byakuya Kuchiki, current head of the Kuchiki clan. (Isn't he important?)

"Well, today, as I went through my morning routines, I felt like I'd done all this the exact same way at least three times. Then, when I was walking down the hallway, I suddenly had a feeling that Rikichi was suddenly going to come around the corner, screaming something about his pants being on fire."

"Well, did it happen?" Byakuya asked.

"Yeah." Renji confirmed.

"Hmm. That _is_ rather unusual... anything else?"

"Well, I'm currently feeling like Yachiru is going to come racing around on her scooter..."

"Strangely enough, I'm feeling the same way," Byakuya mused. "Shall we give a countdown?" Renji nodded.

"Five," they both said. "Four, three, two, one."

"WWHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" A little girl with pink hair shouted, racing around on her scooter.

Byakuya and Renji flash-stepped away as she passed, none too eager to get hit by Yachiru, who was clocking it at mach 2.

"Well, that was rather curious." Byakuya commented, taking a pondering stance (complete with stroking the beard he _didn't have_). "We both had the same countdown at the same time, and we were both dead on. What could this mean?"

Byakuya didn't have time to come up with an answer or recieve one from Renji, because Yachiru suddenly raced back around and flattened him, to say the _least._

"OOOOOOOFFFF!!!" Byakuya felt the wind knocked out of him as Yachiru ran him over, smashing him into facefirst into the floorboards an a rather undignified manner. Renji gaped at Yachiru, then at his captain.

"Captain?! Are you okay?!" Renji yelled, running over.

"Unnghhh..." Byakuya groaned, turning over and looking at the sky.

"Speak to me!!" Renji yelled. "Say something!!"

"Something," Byakuya muttered, sitting up.

"Oh, good." Renji said, relieved. Then he suddenly flipped out, saying "HEY, WAIT!!!! WTF!!!!! WHY DID YOU SAY "SOMETHING"????!!!!!"

"It was a joke, Renji. Somebody please get the license plate of that scooter; it's going over the speed limit." Byakuya said, standing up.

"Oh, okay." Renji said, calming down. Then came another spas attack: "HEY, WAIT!!!! WTF!!!! YOU JUST TOLD _TWO_ JOKES!!!!!!!!!"

He was so busy spassing out, he didn't have time to brace himself for Yachiru's second run.

* * *

**NEWS FLASH, LIVE FROM NINTH COMPANY STABLE:**

"We interrupt this program to bring you an important announcement."

Shuhei Hisagi was running Soul Reaper News Association, and they had just received breaking news, so they had to put it up. He was currently making the report.

"We just recieved news from 6th company that Yachiru Kusajishi was running rampant in there, going way over the recommended speed. Reports say that she was traveling at mach 2 on her scooter. That's pretty fast, isn't it? So, someone please catch her and make her go at at least mach 1, which should be much easier to dodge."

"However, that is not the reason that I bring you this announcement. Reports from Sixth Company also say that Byakuya Kuchiki, well known for his lack of a sense of humor, just made not one, but _two_ jokes after being run over by the rogue lieutenant."

Captain-General Yamamoto, who had been sipping tea at the time, paused when he heard this and looked at the screen.

"Indeed?" he asked, turning the sound up a bit so he could hear it clearer.

"Yes, you heard correctly, folks; Captain Kuchiki of sixth company made two jokes today. When asked to say something after being plowed over by Lieutenant Kusajishi, he said "something", literally. I don't know if that is quite understandable, but it's not quite what you would expect someone to say after being smashed face-first into the ground."

"The second was about getting lieutenant Kusajishi's license plate number, which we all know a scooter lacks. He must've hit his head hard, folks, because that maturity he normally displays seems to have cracked wide open."

Ichigo Kurosaki, visiting the Thirteenth Company stable, heard this and sighed, shaking his head. "These guys are lame; you call this news?"

"Well, think about it. It's not often that we get a joke out of Captain Kuchiki, do we?" Jushiro Ukitake, the white-haired captain of Thirteenth Company, asked him as he took a tray loaded with snacks out of the kitchen and set them down for himself, Ichigo, Rukia Kuchiki, Kiyone and Sentaro to chow down on.

"I know, but..." Ichigo just sighed. _I never quite understand how things work around here, _he thought to himself.

My sympathy, Ichigo; I don't really get it either. What kind of _human_ would?

* * *

**Human World, Kadic Academy:**

Ulrich got up, feeling really tired. _I hate the side effects of the Time Reversion,_ he thought to himself.

To those who don't really know it, the people who have their memories left untouched by the Time Reversion will only feel like they've had the same amount of sleep as they would've had for one day, no matter how many Time Reversions they make. This means that if they used 365 Time Reversions in a single day, they would have had only a day's worth of sleep for a years worth of staying awake. Needless to say, that doesn't sound too great, and he was already tired on the third day.

Ulrich sighed and got up, then thought better of it and rolled back into bed, turning off the alarm clock as he did so and turning his phone to high volume, but keyed so that only the phones of the Lyoko Warriors would be able to reach it. The best antidote for the Time Reversion's side effects was...more sleep!!! Oh, joy(sarcasm).

Ulrich rolled over, pulled the covers over himself and closed his eyes. Moments later, he was snoring loud enough to wake the deaf. And they can't even hear!

Odd muttered something in his sleep, then turned over and pulled the cover up far enough to block out the noise. Then he subconsciously stuffed his head underneath his pillow. All while sleeping more soundly than a koala.

* * *

**The Factory:**

Aeron's eyes opened and he rubbed his eyes briefly, feeling a bit of fatigue. He rose and splashed cold water on his face, washing away what little fatigue he had.

Aeron went to the supercomputer and began to continue his little project. He was intent on completing the surprise, no matter what it took.

Aeron pondered as he worked, being able to type out his commands at rapid speed and still have enough room in his brain to think about stuff. He was wondering if there was any way to cure the side effects of the Time Reversion. Sure, the original program was nice, but that drawback was going to be a problem if XANA attacked about twenty times in succession. Sure, he wasn't exactly your average person, and tired much more slowly than anyone in any variation of the universe, but even he had his limits. Aeron's maximum time to stay awake without anything to help him was about ten thousand years straight. Trust me, he'd actually did that. Once. He wasn't eager to try it again.

Aeron pondered as he typed, and then filed the thought away in his brain for future reference. He had to concentrate.

* * *

**Back at Kadic, Jeremy's dorm:**

Jeremy woke up, feeling pretty tired. He sat up, but didn't bother to dress. The day was young, and they weren't really doing anything that day.

He thought about his recent experience in Lyoko, marveling at how Aeron had upgraded his avatar to its current state. He had barely used it, yet he already liked its new form. Perhaps he'd be going to Lyoko more often...

Jeremy turned to the screen as a message window popped up. The side of Aeron's face popped up in it, showing him looking at a different screen, rapidly typing.

"Hey, Einstein. How was your nap?" Aeron asked, not looking at Jeremy as he typed.

"Alright, thanks. What are you working on?" Jeremy asked.

"It's a surprise," Aeron said, still looking intently at the screen. "How was your trip to Lyoko?"

"Actually, I liked it. How powerful exactly is my laser?" Jeremy asked.

"To put it plainly? It hits hard enough to de-virtualize any of XANA's _monsters_ in one hit. My inner hollow and Kitsune will probably take a few hits before going down, but they're still really vulnerable to it. Trust me, you've got a sweet weapon."

"How did you make it so powerful?" Jeremy asked. "There shouldn't be enough power in the avatars to make a laser that strong..."

"Wrong. Avatars actually have much more power than you think. If you give them the right codes, they can be amazingly strong. Take William for example. His abilities very strong, and he was an avatar that was merely recruited by XANA and given his fullest capabilities."

"Hmm. So, is there any drawback to my laser?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, yeah, there is. You're a smarty-pants, though, so you should be able to figure it out."

Jeremy managed to supress his annoyance at being insulted. "So, did you upgrade any of the others upgrades?"

"Oh, yes. Ulrich already discovered his, albeit accidentally. He probably thinks that it was a fluke, though. The others will discover their new abilities in time. So might you, I might add."

Jeremy was surprised. "I thought I had an ability!"

"You mean hacking and everything? Please. Those only supplement your APW. Your true power has yet to show its face to the light."

Jeremy thought about it, then shrugged. He would just have to trust Aeron.

* * *

**Above Kadic:**

"WAAAHHHH!!!!"

Ichigo Kurosaki spilled out of a Senkaimon, screaming loudly as he fell towards the ground.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO _FALL_ OUT OF A SENKAIMON??!!!!" he hollered, stabilizing himself in the air.

Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai came out soon after, although they _walked _out of the doors that floated in the middle of nowhere, rather than skydive out. The doors soon closed and disappeared.

Rukia and Renji caught up with Ichigo, and all three landed at the same time.

"Okay, remind me why we're doing this?" Ichigo asked.

"R & D detected the presence of a powerful spiritual entity living in this area. We've been sent to investigate." Renji said.

"Why us, though?" Ichigo asked.

"Because we know the human world best, and we're pretty strong. Why else?" Renji asked.

Rukia got out her Soul Pager. "The Soul Pager's picking up massive energy waves centering on that building," she said, pointing at what appeared to be an abandoned factory.

"Then let's move it!" Ichigo yelled, sprinting off. The others followed him.

They hadn't been running for long when they entered an alarmingly powerful spiritual pressure, one that was so powerful that they wondered that it didn't tear space and time to shreds!

Ichigo braced himself against it, barely on his feet. Renji and Rukia were totally forced to their knees, not as powerful as Ichigo. All three looked up, aware of the identity of the source of the spiritual pressure:

"It's Aeron Solo!!" they said together.

* * *

**The Factory:**

Aeron worked at a feverish pace, for it was taking him longer than he thought it would take. He was in the middle of a particularly complicated series of code when he suddenly detected an activated tower.

"Greeaaaat, just peeeeeerrrfect," he muttered, as sarcastic as ever.

He whirled up Jeremy with his APW. "Jeremy?"

"Aeron? You picked up the tower?"

"Yeah. Gather the others, we need to de-... what was that?"

A scream had echoed through the school. Jeremy jumped up, aware of who it was:

"Aelita!!!" he shouted, running out of his room. "Aeron, I've got to go. You'll have to take out the tower."

"Understood. Need your powers?"

"That would be nice."

Aeron keyed in some commands. "Energize, Jeremy!!"

Jeremy watched as his Lyoko attire shimmered into view, complete with his spartan laser. "Here we go!!" he said.

"Make sure you notify the others and give them their powers by operating the computer from here. Over and out." Aeron said.

* * *

**Outside the Factory:**

Ichigo and co. ran up.

"Why would Aeron be in such a run-down place like this?" Renji wondered.

"It's his style. He goes into a run-down place and makes it extravagent on the inside. We're sure to find a couple of surprises," Ichigo said.

They ran in. Rukia checked the Soul Pager. "He's about fifty feet below us."

Renji ran up to what appeared to be a freight elevator. He pressed the button, but nothing happened. "I don't think it works," he said.

Ichigo pushed him aside and slashed the door open. He looked to see nothing but an elevator shaft. "Well, here goes."

He jumped into the shaft, landing with a thud on top of an elevator. He found a hatch in it and opened it, and dropped inside.

Aeron was just opening the elevator when Ichigo dropped in. "Whoa!!" Aeron said, quite surprised at the substitute Soul Reaper's sudden appearance.

Ichigo instantly recognized Aeron. "Aeron, what are you doing here? And what is with that computer?!"

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"

Ichigo fell over. "Don't tell me you forgot!!"

"No, I lost my memory. I really don't know you, or don't know if I know you at least. I know everything except for anything that had to do with me. So, who are you?"

Ichigo sighed. Well, at least Aeron was more open than Soul Society had been during the crisis of the Twins, Homura and Shizuku. (For more info, watch Bleeach, Fade to Black: I call your name) "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Soul Reaper.

Ichigo saw a brief flash of recognition in Aeron's eyes, but it faded quickly. It seemed that Aeron had truly forgotten everything.

"So, what are you doing here?" Ichigo asked. "I mean, you died, right?"

"That I did, but I came back. Listen, I can't really explain right now, I have to do something."

"What do you have to do?" Ichigo asked.

Aeron flash-stepped to the computer screen and keyed in a few modifications. "You'll see. Head down to the next level. Press the down button on the elevator."

Ichigo did that just as Renji and Rukia dropped down. The elevator door closed, leaving Renji and Rukia just enough time to glimpse Aeron.

"So he _is_ here," Renji said as the elevator went down.

"Right." Ichigo said. "_What_ he's doing here I have no idea."

"We'll see soon enough." Renji said.

The elevator opened to show them the three scanners.

"Huh? What are these?" Ichigo asked.

"Step into the scanners and wait for me to send you to Lyoko." They heard Aeron said.

"Huh? Lyoko? Isn't that a world from a show called Code Lyoko?" Renji asked. (Soul Reapers sometimes watch real world TV)

"Well, fiction is often reality in a world like ours." Aeron pointed out as they went into the scanners.

"Speaking of which, wasn't all this in Code Lyoko?" Ichigo asked, as the scanner closed.

"Right. Transfer, Ichigo."

A small card began forming as the scanner began scanning Ichigo for the very first time.

"OK, what are your names?" Aeron asked as he scanned Renji and Rukia.

They told him their names. "Ok, scanner, and virtualization!!"

The three closed their eyes as a strange wind blew and whipped them into Lyoko...

* * *

**Lyoko, Mountain Region:**

Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji virtualized, high above the mountain terrain. Then, Ichigo looked down and saw the ground far below.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" he hollered as he fell to the ground.

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS FALLING INTO ONE WORLD OR ANOTHER???!!!!!!" he ranted, stabilizing himself in midair and landing lightly.

Renji was virtualized a bit after him, and also fell a bit before regaining control, but not enough to keep him from landing on his backside.

"Ow," he muttered, feeling his back. "It's as if I fell on metal..."

Just then, he felt the hilt of Zabimaru in his hand. "Huh?"

He pulled Zabimaru a little, and it came off of his back, freeing itself from whatever it had been held in. He beheld Zabimaru in its shikai state. He looked down at himself and saw that he had his Bankai robe, albeit missing the baboon skull and teeth, and a red chain that had been holding Zabimaru to his back. The chain had some teeth hanging off of every other link.

Renji looked at Ichigo. "Hey, why are you in your Bankai?"

"Huh? My Bankai?" Ichigo looked down at himself, and saw that he was robed in his Bankai attire, but he still had the strap that his Shikai state had for carrying Zangetsu. Tensa Zangetsu was not in his hand, though...

"Where's Tensa Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked, turning his head. Something poked his eye when he did so, and he felt for it. It was Tensa Zangetsu's sword hilt. He pulled it out of a glossy, iridiscient black scabbard attached to the strap.

"Hmm. Now that's interesting." Ichigo commented. "Where's Rukia?"

As if on cue, Rukia virtualized, having been processed through the scanner a bit later than the others. She noted that she was high in the air, so she fell and landed lightly on her feet.

Ichigo and Renji stared at her. Rukia caught their stares. "Huh? What?"

Ichigo mutely pointed at her. She looked down at herself, a remark rising in her throat...and quickly dying as she realized why they were staring at her like she was some kind of alien.

Rukia was wearing a reflective silk dress, colored whitish-light blue with floral designs all over it. She also had a scarf similar to the one Byakuya wore all the time, although it was made similarily to her dress. Sheathed at her waist was Sode no Shirayuki, in its Shikai state and within a glossy white scabbard, with rather pearly iridiscience, for Ichigo and Renji caught glimpses of blue, red, and green whenever she moved the sheath every which away.

Ichigo finally found his tongue. "I don't think that you'd wear that normally," he commented. Rukia nodded mutely in agreement.

They looked up as Aeron virtualized above them. He landed as lightly as Rukia, and noted their appearances. "Well. Those are some, eh, interesting outfits."

"What's with this though?" Ichigo asked. "Why do I have my Bankai on, and why are Rukia and Renji permanently in Shikai?"

Aeron looked at him. "Lyoko supplements your real world powers in the fact that you can sustain them for longer. I'm not in my Shikai because I entered a different way. Anyway, in Lyoko you will be able to jump higher, run faster, unleash attacks of higher power, and maintain your power for extended durations."

Aeron looked at Renji. "For example, Zabimaru can now be swung indefinitely."

"Really?" Renji asked, swinging it in extended form. He swung it once, twice, three times, and then a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth...

Renji was quite astonished by this as he summoned Zabimaru back together. "Okay, I believe you."

"Good. Let's go. I'll fill you in on the way."

Aeron and co. sped off, flash stepping all the way.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

Aelita was being assaulted by all one-thousand partridges and two rabid dogs. She was running as fast as she possibly could, but it was clear that it wasn't fast enough.

She ran over to the stairs and found that they were closing in quickly. Without even thinking if it was possible, she vaulted over the railing and braced herself to land on the stairs.

Which she didn't. Somebody vaulted through the air and caught her before she hit the stairs, landing lightly and springing off.

Aelita looked to see who her mysterious rescuer was. "Jeremy?!"

Jeremy grinned at Aelita. "Hey, Aelita. What's up?"

Aelita hugged him around the neck, which caused Jeremy to blush, but he continued running.

He stormed out of the building and set Aelita down, then whipped up his laser. He aimed and fired it into the midst of the little army of animals.

They phased in and out as they fell, stunned. Jeremy turned and whirled up his HUD, selecting Aelita's Lyoko powers and giving them to her manually.

Aelita felt herself grow stronger as her Lyoko powers were brought to the real world. "Thanks Jeremy."

They turned back to the little army as it got back up. They began initiating their attack with the intent of keeping them from doing any harm.

Then, they heard a crash as William's dorm window shattered, with William flying out. He narrowed his eyes and stopped himself in midair, subconsciously activating his Lyoko powers.

Out of the dorm trooped Kitsune, as menacing as ever.

William groaned. "You again? Why is it always the tough guys?" he asked, holding up Zweihander and preparing for battle.

Kitsune held out his hand and pointed at him. A red sphere of energy shimmered into view, pulling in light and enlarging. He waited a moment, then unleashed its power as a large wave of energy that roared towards William.

William held up Zweihander, blocking it with the triangle on the bottom of the blade. The blade immediately began to glow white, absorbing the power of the blast. When the Kitsune ended the attack, William raised Zweihander and slashed, sending a now uber-powerful Razor Blast slicing towards Kitsune, too fast for even his eyes to follow.

Kitsune grunted in pain as the Razor Blast slammed into him, having been charged with tons of power. He stood up, regenerating the damage that he sustained.

"Why do you guys always have to be so strong?" William complained, jumping at him.

Kitsune took out his blade. "Distort reality..._Kyokkai Shukun!!_"

Reality shattered into just William. Kitsune began appearing all around him, disappearing and reappearing in many different places. William looked around, wishing that Kitsune's illusion type Zanpakuto wasn't quite so powerful. He sighed and dove into his _sixth _sense.

William's sixth sense was a result of his corruption by XANA. XANA had given him the power to see what _other_ people saw. He had used this once before, to see what XANA saw. This time he used it to see what Kitsune saw.

William saw Kitsune bringing his sword down, and there was no way to stop him. Therefore, William decided to activate his third ability: ghost mode.

William abruptly turned insubstantial, a ghost among the world of matter. Kitsune's blade whistled through his low-density body, not able to harm the air. William returned to solid form, and, knowing that he wasn't capable of fighting when looking through someone else's eyes, slashed in a 360 degree circle, forcing Kitsune to jump back.

Kitsune hissed in anger and slashed, sending the wake of his slash straight at William. William triggered Super Smoke, racing along the ground and quickly activating his Ghost Mode at the same time, phasing through the wall, goading Kitsune to follow him. Kitsune growled in anger and chased him, smashing down the wall.

_This poser will not best me,_ he vowed.

* * *

**Lyoko:**

Ichigo stopped briefly. "Hey, what're those?"

Aeron paused and looked at where he was pointing. There were four kankerlats approaching.

"Perfect. You guys can use those as target practice." Aeron said.

"Huh?" they all asked, confused.

"Don't just stand there; go get 'em!" Aeron shouted, getting behind Ichigo and kicking him towards them.

"AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Ichigo screamed, as Aeron had kicked him so hard that he was going at Mach 10.

Ichigo lanced one of the kankerlats straight through the eye of XANA. The kankerlat exploded as Ichigo skidded to a halt.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" Renji yelled, swinging Zabimaru and smashing two in one hit.

The last kankerlat ran up to Rukia, shooting at her. She easily deflected every shot. Then the stupid thing bumped into her leg and fell over, comically running around in a circle while failing to get back up.

Rukia rolled her eyes and kicked the pathetic roachster off the edge. It sailed off into the distance, wiggling its legs as it flew. Aeron cupped his ears with his hands and listened for the satisfying explosion of the kankerlat being destroyed. It did not disappoint.

"Well. I guess you can take 'em out okay," Aeron commented, lowering his hands. "Let's keep going!"

They were about to keep going when suddenly a line of venom lanced through the air and struck the area they were going to tread on, blocking their path. They turned and saw three hornets approaching, along with the shadowy form of Anei-Aeron.

"Who's that?" Ichigo asked.

"My inner hollow." Aeron replied. "Though I wouldn't say "inner" anymore."

Ichigo sighed and lifted his hand to his face, about to summon his own inner hollow to the surface. Before he could do so, however, Anei-Aeron blasted his hand with a shadow blast of energy, knocking his hand askew just as he summoned his Hollow mask.

Ichigo yelled as he fell backward, his mask manifesting hand facing into empty air. As he fell, his energy poured out of his hand, forming a shadowy figure out of his spiritual energy. When the energy cleared, there stood a figure all to familiar to Ichigo:

"What's up...king?"

There stood none other than Hollow Ichigo.

Aeron raised an eyebrow. "Now that is a very interesting ability," he commented, scratching his chin. "I didn't think that it was possible, yet all the same..."

Hollow Ichigo yawned, drawing his blade. "What am I doing here? How did I get out of your body, Ichigo?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Ichigo admitted, standing up.

Hollow Ichigo sighed, and then saw Anei-Aeron. "Hey, now there's a guy who could make my day more interesting," he said, immediately hyping into combat mode.

Anei-Aeron saw Hollow Ichigo as well. "Strange. I didn't think that there was another of my kind."

"So we're alike...Hollows with total Soul Reaper power, not arrancar wannabes." he commented.

Anei-Aeron inclined his head. "Although you are of vastly lesser power, I can see."

"Want to test me?" Hollow Ichigo asked, going into his latest hollow form, with four horns, tufts of hair on his wrists and ankles, vertical stripes above and below his eyes, claws on all of his digits, and strange black patterns on his chest. His hollow hole was quite prominent. His silver blade flickered in the light.

"Do you want to be tested?" Anei-Aeron replied. Black matter began spreading across his body, turning him into a black demon with strange gold patterns arcing all over his body. His mask had a vertical gold stripe down the middle, and tear-like markings trailing all the way to the edge of his mask. His forehead beheld a golden trident-like marking, and a pair of wing-like marks above his eyebrows. His mask had no mouth. On his back stretched a pair of black dragon wings with gold webbing. All in all, a very terrifying sight to behold.

Hollow Ichigo's response was a maniacal laugh as he charged at Anei-Aeron. Anei-Aeron let out an eerie battle cry as he charged into battle. They met in an immense explosion of spiritual pressure.

Aeron wordlessly released his shikai and turned, protecting the others with his own spiritual pressure, manifesting as a pair of wings spread wide so that no energy got past them.

Aeron nodded at the two hollows locked in lethal combat, striking at each other with what should've been death blows but weren't simply because they were so resilient yet agile, dodging or blocking at inhuman speed. "While they're busy with each other, let's get to the tower."

They ran off, forgetting that three hornets were in quick pursuit.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

Kitsune walked through the hallway, looking from side to side as he looked for his opponent.

As he looked around, William silently phased out of the wall behind him and raised Zweihander and brought it down on Kitsune's head, instantly cleaving the man in two.

Kitsune's two halves fell, then suddenly faded as if they were apparitions. William cursed and leapt away from a reflective silver blade that swiped at his head.

Kitsune shook his head as he held his blade up. "You have to be careful around me, William. You never know what is illusion and what is reality when Kyokkai Shukun is active."

As he spoke, various images of him began appearing and disappearing. All of them spoke with an eerie unison.

William sighed in irritation. None of his opponents had ever been quite so difficult to defeat. He placed both hands on Zweihander and powered up a Razor Blast for hitting him with the moment he attacked.

Kitsune jumped at him, and William sent the Razor Blast slicing toward him, but it sliced through empty air as Kitsune suddenly flash-stepped away.

William dissolved into smoke as Kitsune slashed through the area where he was standing, slipping between the entity's legs and reforming, bringing his sword down this time.

Kitsune whirled and blocked the strike with his own blade, being a very talented swordsman, even capable of matching Aeron to a certain extent. He twirled his blade in a circle, flipping Zweihander away as he did this, and stabbed forward in an attempt to take William down.

William simply triggered his ghost mode, causing Kitsune to stumble through him as he called Zweihander back to his hand. He solidified and spun, sending a Razor Blast towards his foe.

Kitsune saw it coming and barehandedly chopped the energy blast in half, stunning William and sending the shots past him to smash into the wall. Then Kitsune threw his blade at William, which William easily sidestepped. The blade zoomed down the corridor, five seconds away from impaling itself in the wall.

"Binding spell 37: _Tsuriboshi!!_" Kitsune declared, pointing past William and sending a star shaped energy net down the hall past the sword and anchoring itself to the walls before the sword, catching it and slingshotting it backwards straight towards William.

William realized Kitsune's ploy too late as the blade slashed him as it zoomed past. Kitsune plucked his sword from the air as if it were no more than a feather.

Kitsune pointed his blade at William. "Are you giving up?"

"Never! You might have damaged me, but I've still got plenty of fight left in me!!" William said, grasping Zweihander with defiance.

"Very well. You have sealed your own fate."

Kitsune gathered his red spiritual pressure at his fingertip, and was about to unleash it when he was lanced through with a powerful laser beam.

"Argh!! What-?!" he whirled around to see Jeremy in the doorway, Aelita by his side.

"Hello there, Kitsune. We're not letting you take down William." Jeremy said, raising his laser. Aelita powered up two Energy Fields as well, getting ready to throw them at Kitsune.

Kitsune growled and took on a fighting stance. _More of these annoying insects!!_ he thought to himself.

Aelita suddenly merged her Energy Fields with Jeremy's laser, abruptly energizing it to the fourth degree! Jeremy aimed carefully and then fired, his laser surrounded with a pink nimbus around the blue-white core.

Kitsune had no time to react. He got hit by the laser, and was sent back to Lyoko.

William yelled in triumph and ran over. "Great job, you guys!!"

"Thanks, William." Jeremy said. Aelita smiled as he said this, sharing his general feeling.

William gestured outside. "I thought you were dealing with the IAoX (**I**mperial **A**rmy **o**f **X**ana)?"

Jeremy grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Well..."

"HIII-YAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" they heard from the courtyard.

Odd was opening fire on the army, spraying them with a rapid rate of fire. Ulrich was fending off the dogs, and was doing a better job of it this time around. The two were handling the situation pretty well.

William let Zweihander rest at his side. "I don't think we need to get involved," he commented.

* * *

**Back in Lyoko:**

Aeron and co. were speeding off in the direction of the tower. There were in sight of it when a hail of laser bolts suddenly lanced down in front of them.

Aeron screeched to a halt, and looked around for his foes. He quickly saw the three hornets that had arrived with Anei-Aeron, and berated himself for not destroying them sooner.

Aeron jumped into the air and slashed at one, but missed by the barest fraction of an inch. Aeron cursed and waved his hand, which was glowing green and yellow.

A hornet suddenly halted in midair, surrounded by a green nimbus, then was engulfed with yellow energy and vanished. Moments later, it reappeared in the path of another hornet, causing it to crash and destroy both.

Aeron sliced at the last one, cleaving it in two. The halves landed on the ground and exploded, quickly dissolving.

Aeron sheathed his sword. "Well, now we can level that tower to the ground, so what do you sa-"

"_AAAAHHHHHHHH_!!!!" Hollow Ichigo hollered as he suddenly flew past them, smashing into the face of a cliff. Cracks spread across the rock face where he had impacted.

Anei-Aeron appeared close to him, his black blade of shadow poised to stab his foe.

Ichigo raced forward and struck him from behind, powering his swing with a Getsuga Tensho. Anei-Aeron was sent skidding away, immensely surprised by the attack.

Anei-Aeron turned, his full hollow form bristling with untamed power. "_So you wish to die, then, boy?_"

"What're you talking about? People in Lyoko never die; they're just devirtualized." Aeron reminded him.

Anei-Aeron cursed; he was right.

Renji and Rukia looked at each other and nodded. Rukia began chanting incantations under her breath, while Renji shouted "BANKAI!!!!" at the top of his lungs to prevent Anei-Aeron from noticing Rukia's actions.

The resulting storm of spiritual pressure drowned out the sound of Rukia's incantations, causing Anei-Aeron to focus on Renji. Renji came out, holding his Bankai, Hihio Zabimaru.

"_Higa Zekko_!!" he shouted, separating all the segments of Hihio Zabimaru and accelerating them at Anei-Aeron.

Anei-Aeron let them hit him, for they glanced off of his hierro without so much as scratching him.

"_Hmph. Such weak attacks. I'm surprised that you're a lieutenant, Abarai._" Anei-Aeron said, his voice vibrating eerily.

"Heh, you're a fool." Renji said, grinning.

"_Hmm?_"

"You really are Aeron's opposite. Aeron's a genius, but you're an idiot. All this time, while I was attracting your attention with pretty lights..."

"Binding Spell 61: _Rikujokoro!!_ (Six point light rod restraint) Binding Spell 63: _Sajou Sabaku!! _(Locking binding strips)Binding Spell 75: _Gochu Tekkan!! _Five pillar piercing iron)"

Rukia hammered Anei-Aeron with three different full power binding spells, smashing him to the ground and binding him with chains and bars of light.

Anei-Aeron roared in frustration and tried to escape, but Aeron walked up to the pillars of iron and placed a single finger on them. "Hado 11: _Tsuzuri Raiden. _(Bound lightning)"

A large amount of lightning crackled from Aeron's fingertips and conducted through the pillar into Anei-Aeron, causing him to roar in pain. Aeron then placed his hands together and wordlessly froze the hollow in time and moved him to the digital sea.

Aeron sighed, weary from having used two forbidden spells twice each. He pointed at the tower. "Guys, please level the tower.

Hollow Ichigo smirked through his mask and powered up his cero, then unleashed it in a massive blast of energy that completely blew over the tower.

Aeron held his hand, shining with green energy. "One last forbidden spell for the day."

"75th of the Forbidden Spell: _Jikoku Gyakuten!!_ (Time reversal)"

They all watched as the green wave pulsed outwards, conducting across Lyoko, flowing through the towers and energizing the real world with the time reversal.

* * *

**Back at Kadic:**

The remaining Lyoko warriors watched as time reversed itself...


End file.
